• Gunmen attacked Yargoje village in northwest Nigeria, killing at least 50 people and kidnapping an unspecified number.
• Residents report sporadically shooting at people, including their younger brother.
• Gunmen abducted an unknown number of villagers and looted properties.

Residents said on Monday that gunmen attacked the village of Yargoje in northwest Nigeria over the weekend, killing at least 50 people and kidnapping an unspecified number, including women and children.

A year after President Bola Tinubu came to power promising to end widespread insecurity, armed gangs, often referred to as bandits, have made attacks in the northwest almost routine, with authorities seemingly powerless to stop them.

Resident Hassan Ya’u reported that dozens of gunmen on motorbikes stormed Yargoje in the Kankara local government area of Katsina state late on Sunday.

“They shot sporadically at people, claiming the lives of more than 50 (of us), including my younger brother,” he told the news agency by phone. He added that gunmen had abducted an unknown number of villagers and looted properties.

Another resident, Abdullahi Yunusa Kankara, stated that he narrowly escaped the onslaught and that it continued into the early hours of Monday. He said, “Our town has turned into a death zone. Almost every house in the village has fallen victim to this attack.”

Kankara added, “We are currently carrying out a headcount to determine how many people have been abducted. We recovered more dead bodies this morning.”

Katsina police authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Attacks and kidnapping for ransom plague rural areas in northern Nigeria, amidst a 15-year-long Islamist insurgency in the northeast and frequent deadly clashes between farmers and herders in north-central areas.

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